Autoclass killed roleplay in Achaea, but, to be fair, roleplay in Achaea was hurting long long before autoclass. Autoclass was more like the final nail in the roleplay coffin.

Well, I wouldn't say it was dead. But yeah, I think Achaea was on the borderline. I blame Mhaldor. Even though they have the closest thing to a decent RP experience in Achaea now. But they're strict, very strict. So strict, it's as if you can't use the bathroom without someone higher up saying you can.

But in any case, yeah. I agree with you there. I think it started going downhill after the Iron Citadel fell, personally. Ashtan went from a strong and proud city to.. well.. if you're ever there, just look at some of the crap that the Ashtan channel spews out.

So! In any case, let's all just agree.. Lusternia > Achaea.

Is the class aether supposed to be IC at all on Achaea?

Ha. Yes. But you get so much useless crap on those channels.. It takes a Divine to either: Tell everyone to shush, Threaten with Death, Mute someone, Zap someone.. The list goes on. I can only list the stupid crap I've heard over the channels. They were a bad idea, really. No one uses them. It's usually only there for questions about your class, but people use it just to talk or joke around.. Tsk. In fact, it got to the point where the admins created 'The Channel Monitor' to monitor people. Woo for immaturity.

Cuz they were talking about how sucky bard bashing was and how us magi now were spoiled with firelash and something about tri-trans and....sounded about as IC as the forums are...

I think a lot of people are missing the point of the original poster here...we all KNOW Lusternia > Achaea!

The other day, I made a Sylvan character on Achaea, with house. Within only about 4 hours online, I heard ROFL, LOL, heaps of smilies, and very VERY thinly veiled OOCness. Then, a house member was telling a story. He managed to say "players" in this story. A good RPer who was there (Much to him. Only good RP I saw in my time on that character.) asked if he meant adventurers. The guy telling the story didn't even apologise, he just said "Yes, adventurers, as you call them" and carried on, not even acknowledging his mistake.

In fact, the story itself was a load of absolute BS. It almost sounded like a rip-off from Lusternia. He was talking about a black planet that consumes everything it touches, and was slowly moving towards Sapience. Making up random stories = A OK. Making up some crap that would affect the ENTIRE WORLD if it was read and selling it as the truth = BAD.

People don't even try and be IC on Newbie, which kind of encourages them to be OOC everywhere, which is also a Bad Thingâ„¢.

After about 3 hours of play, just after the storytelling, I quit my city and house, and turned the class channel off.

You, like many others, unfortunately had to see what Achaea has turned into. Again, don't go to Achaea if you want RP. You will NOT find it. It's unfortunate, because back then, when the Infernals of the Citadel were still around.. RP was booming, and Achaea was probably the best place for it.. And.. Achaea's history has nothing to do with a black planet, by the way.

The history is mostly about.. a bunch of Divine believe that one guy is the head-honcho, while others believe that he isn't.. War starts.. A giant blob called the Spawn of.. Uh.. Whatever.. (Think Kethuru) goes and rapes one Divine and creates Humans.. Humans procreate and stuff.. Yeah. Lusty has a better history, and it isn't all that confusing like Achaea's. Achaea's history is.. mismatched and you can't tell what really came first or happened later.. And some things, many of the older players don't even know.

And yes, the Sylvan House sucks. House Corruption, even with autoclass, at it's finest.

Anyway.. I repeat what I said before..
Lusternia > Achaea

Head honcho = Ayar, split himself into Ayar and Proteus (who became the leader of the gods). The Unnamable Horror entered and raped Maya (not actually a goddess, but in-between them and mortals), and humans were born. Proteus' powerful lady-friend and a few of their colleagues decide to overthrow him, and almost succeed, but fail in the end. Then come Entropy and Discord, which are so powerful they nearly destroy the gods, until Ayar intervenes and disperses them throughout all of creation. In order to prevent such things from happening again, Ayar and Proteus join once again and become Serapis.

That's it, in a nutshell, to clarify on what Tael said above.

In my two or so years of playing Achaea, I didn't even look at their histories. No one referenced them; no one cared about them. Here, it's almost like it's required to read Lusternia's history.

Heh, you were probably never an Occultist. Their novices go through some pretty rigorus testing on the histories and theories of karma.

Aetolia's history was "Something happened, but no one really knows what. Occasionally, we'll make up a bit of it, and if it contradicts the rest, that's all part of the Grand Artifice."

So, so, so very true. Occultists are hard on their novices, but.. then again, they had the most immerse RP out of any guild. Now, they still have the super hard requirements.. but Autoclass killed the House. So, people just go rogue Occultist.. or just be an Occultist in another House. Sad.

Guess you haven't been in Aetolia in awhile, huh?

Since around when the wereguilds came out.

I was a Hematurgist in Aetolia for a while... REALLY F*CKING AWESOME!!! Hematurgy has to be, without doubt, the best skillset IRE ever came up with... Then there's the RP in there, which is of far higher degree as Lusternia in my opinion... It's just that something's missing. I don't really know what, but I -do- know Lusternia has it. So, let's add another term to the equation;

Lusternia > Aetolia > Achaea

Anyone mind shoving Imperian in somewhere? I've played it for... 20 minutes and then got fed up with the idea of actually having to bash my way all the way to 20th Circle -again-...

I don't know, Aetolia was the strangest to me, couldn't figure out more or less how to play. Imperian was...just another IRE game feel imo. Dunno.

Lusternia -> Imperian -> Aetolia -> Achaea. Basically how it works.
Nice, friendly, kind of loose -> Anal retentive elitist -> umm..not too sure -> Loose as heck.

Imperian has updates, but um.. free PK events without real RP don't seem to make me smile. Anti-Magick versus.. whatever seems a little shallow too, but I should probably read the history before casting judgement.

Anyway, I see Lusternia staying a great mud as long as the playerbase doesn't slack off with its RP. As long as the guilds and their leaders are establishing guidelines through example then it should be no problem. As for growth? I think it'll be fine. There will always be builders and as long as the areas add to the world it'll draw others in.

Totally in love with aetherspace. Can't wait until the other IRE games add ships and put their own twist on them.

Amen. That was the problem with Achaea. The administration, in my opinion, started putting too much emphasis on a larger playerbase rather than roleplay.. Which drove a lot of the old geezer Achaeans.. sadly me.. over to Lusternia, but I'm certainly not complaining.. Makes me wonder why I waited so long..

As for Aetherspace.. Yeah, Lusty started it.. and Lusty will continue to make it better, I'm sure. I'd certainly like to start seeing Aethership duels..

As for Aetolia.. I couldn't really get into it. I played it for a few months, got a little strong. The fact is that I hated that nearly everyone was Sanguine.. and the fact that it felt like I was in a parallel Achaea.. except smaller. The playerbase was always small in Aetolia whenever I came on too. It's got a good premise, just not the huge playerbase to top it. Personally, being a Luminary was good fun.. Beating Undead baddies, woot woot.